Dichloroacetate (DCA) is a product of water chlorination and a metabolite of certain industrial solvents, thus making it a chemical of environmental concern. However, DCA is also used as an investigational drug for treating various diseases of adults and children, at doses far greater than those to which humans are normally exposed in the environment. Our research involves how DCA is metabolized by healthy adults and by children with a fatal genetic disease, congenital lactic acidosis (CLA) who are treated with DCA.